Giorgio de Chirico: Anti-Modernist
William Poundstone blogs about the late paintings of Giorgio de Chirico. Poundstone writes that recently "De Chirico was the only canonical modernist who spent most of his life proclaiming that modern art was junk. He called for a return to Old Master values as early as 1919, just as his career was taking off. The […]
James Austin Murray: Interview
Valerie Brennan interviews painter James Austin Murray about his work and process. Murray comments: "When I've got good flow it's like the painting is a partner and we're having a discussion. It lets me know what it wants and I try to work with it… As I've gotten older I've realized how important it is […]
Sophia Starling: Interview
Daniel Sturgis interviews painter Sophia Starling whose work is on view at the Jerwood Painting Fellowships 2013 exhibition at Jerwood Space, London, through April 28, 2013. Starling remarks: "I became interested in what abstract painting could be, so I developed this process where the support, the paint and the material all have equal weight, they […]
Antonio Adriano Puleo: Sculpted Paintings & Painted Sculptures
Review of the exhibition Antonio Adriano Puleo: Sculpted Paintings & Painted Sculptures at Luckman Gallery, on view through June 1, 2013. The paintings "hold together under the well established tradition of painterly exploration. The gallery's website mentions Frank Stella, Josef Albers, Ad Reinhardt, and Robert Ryman as some of Puleo's influences – all artists who […]
Jean-Michel Basquiat: Without Anger
A blog post that disputes the commonly held notion that Jean-Michel Basquiat was an "angry" artist. "This designation is partly due to a 1983 interview with Henry Geldzahler where Basquiat described his work as being 80% about anger. But as a descriptor, 'anger' fails to explain the manifold conditions of art-making… You have to be […]
Shara Hughes: Studio Visit
Rachel Reese interviews painter Shara Hughes on the occasion of the exhibition Shara Hughes: Don’t Tell Anyone But…, at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, on view from April 19 – June 15, 2013. Hughes comments: "Interiors became the foundation where I could lay all different artists who have come before me into and onto the painting. […]
Halsey Hathaway: Interview
An interview accompanying an exhibition of new paintings by Halsey Hathaway at Rawson Projects, Brooklyn, New York.
Christian Haub: Pure Plastic Painting
John Haber reviews the exhibition Christian Haub: New Floats at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, on view through April 13, 2013. Habers writes that the work "looks so light because it collects light, like oils. The work may sound like sculpture, but Haub is still painting. No wonder Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe has compared him to […]
Summer Wheat: Tension & Palpable Delight
Jacquelyn Gleisner profiles painter Summer Wheat. Referring to Wheat's recent show at Valentine Gallery, Gleisner writes that "Given the context, the documentation of work in the Valentine show pertains to the daily maintenance of personhood—that is, grooming. Inverting the art historical formula of female bathers painted by male artists such as Bonnard and Picasso, Wheat […]
Jenny Dubnau: Studio Visit
Elisabeth Condon photo blogs a visit to the studio of painter Jenny Dubnau. Condon writes that "[Dubnau's] portraits combine the best of Chardin and David (someone she thinks about often), with photographs staged by Jenny in the studio. The combination of air-borne facture and photographic portraiture yields strange perceptual resonance, slowing the rapid scan of […]
Paul Behnke: An Awful Rainbow
James Panero writes about the work of painter Paul Behnke for the exhibition Paul Behnke: An Awful Rainbow at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, on view from April 18 – May 18, 2013. Panero begins: "Paul Behnke is a painter of layers. He paints less in strokes than in slicks. In the studio he […]
Joshua Marsh: Thing & Ghost
John Yau blogs about the work of Joshua Marsh, on view in the exhibition Joshua Marsh: As If at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, through May 4, 2013. Yau writes that "the perceptual state [Marsh] focuses on is both optical and volumetric, a tension between solid form and ethereal light. Using a high-keyed, hothouse palette, he […]
Inventing Abstraction Revisited
Piri Halasz takes a close look at the exhibition Inventing Abstraction: 1910 – 1925 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, on view through April 15, 2013. After revisting the show in detail, Halasz concludes: "for all its conceptual flaws, [the exhibition] still offers much to see & enjoy. I can see many reasons […]
Sam Gilliam: Cover Song
Andrew Berardini reviews the exhibition Sam Gilliam: Hard-Edge Paintings 1963-1966 at David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, on view through May 11, 2013. Bernardini writes: "…these paintings are not all that 'revolutionary' as paintings. They came well-after Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, the first-string of what would later become known as the Washington Color School, who […]
Neo-Expressionist Power Chords
Arena rock power chords stir memories of Neo-Expressionist paintings for painter Ken Weathersby. Weathersby writes: "As there is something signaling excess, even hinting at chaos in an overdriven distorted guitar on the edge of feedback, so there is in the touch of a gigantic brush dripping with a giant blob of mottled oil color. Each […]
Michiel Ceulers: Interview
Steven Cox interviews painter Michiel Ceulers about his work and practice. Asked about process, Ceulers comments: "What I was really fascinated about was just the idea of the image in it, that just because you go from the diagonals and then doubling it, you suddenly arrive at the whole idea of modernism through the grid. […]
Alberto Burri: Cellotex Nero
L. Brandon Krall reviews the exhibition Alberto Burri: Black Cellotex at Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, on view through April 20, 2013. Krall writes: "These works engage us with their human scale, their surfaces tempting to the touch, and while minimal in depth compared to his earlier work, they operate on sensory subtleties of texture […]
Jane Dickson: In Conversation
Jennifer Samet interviews painter Jane Dickson about her work. Samet writes: "Jane Dickson is best known for her nocturnal cityscapes of the old Times Square — peep shows and porn parlors — but she has also mined subjects such as Las Vegas, Coney Island, American highways, demolition derbies, and suburban homes. She often paints on […]
Piero’s Problematical World
Jed Perl questions the critical response to the exhibition Piero della Francesca in America at the Frick Collection, New York, on view through May 19, 2013. "What troubles me isn’t that people are embracing Piero’s work," Perl writes, "I love much of it, too—it’s that they are reluctant to see that its power is inextricably […]
Brad Eberhard: History, Process & Metaphor
Geoff Tuck blogs about the work of Brad Eberhard on view in the exhibition Brad Eberhard (dis-solve) at Thomas Solomon Gallery, Los Angeles, through Apr 20, 2013. Tuck writes that "looking at these new paintings, Paul Klee comes to my mind and also Gustav Klimt. Each artist employs a somewhat lapidary way of painting, with carefully […]